Tuesday, July 28, 2015

This later Jamestown church sits about 100 feet from the original wood pole structure

Was one of the founders of the Church of England’s first
permanent settlement in Virginia a secret Catholic?

Earlier today archaeologists from Jamestown and the
Smithsonian announced the discovery of four graves in what was the chancel of
the original 1608 church at Jamestown. In modern terms, the chancel is the area behind the altar in a church, so it's a pretty significant thing to be buried there. As a rule, chancel burials are clergy and leadership.

There are a number of excellent write-ups on the discovery and the
identification of the remains on the Jamestowne and Smithsonian websites. I won't repeat the story here; the links below tell it better than me . . .

Two of the burials are facing east, the direction clergy
were traditionally buried. The other two burials face west.One of the east-facing graves contains the
remains of Robert Hunt, the first Anglican clergyman to land at Jamestown.The second contains the remains of Gabriel
Archer, one of the founders of the colony.He was said to be Bartholomew Gosnold’s second-in-command.

Both men were buried between 1608 and 1610, just as the colony was getting established. They are among the earliest English burials in America. At a time when most people were simply buried in the dirt, these men had elaborate caskets. That, their burial dress, the objects they were interned with and their placement in the chancel tell us they were all men of great status in the colony.

I say "men" rather than "people" because in 1609 Jamestown was essentially a military outpost. Women and children did not appear in significant numbers until later. Archer wasn't married and had no children that we know of.

When Archer’s grave was uncovered, the archaeologists
discovered what they believe to be a Catholic reliquary that once sat atop his
casket.The reliquary contains bone
fragments and the remains of a small lead vessel.It’s engraved with a letter M, and an
arrow.

Why was he buried in an Anglican church with a Catholic
reliquary?Was the person who put it
atop his casket another Catholic? Or is there another explanation?At this point, no one knows.

All we can say for sure is that obedience to the Protestant
Church of England was the law of the land in 1607, and Catholicism was
underground throughout England during Archer's lifetime.

Prior to this discovery historians knew Archer’s family in
Essex, England was Catholic.His
parents were cited in 1583 for being Catholic recusants; failing to attend the
now-mandatory Anglican services.Until
now, there was no definitiive evidence about whether Gabriel was Catholic or
Anglican, though there were suggestions that he was at least a Catholic sympathizer which was fairly common in England in those days. I'm sure this finding will lead to a re-examination of the written Archer records in England and perhaps new insights.

Archer studied the law in England and became the colony’s
first Recorder. He was wounded by natives during the original landing. Prior to his arrival at
Jamestown, Gosnold and Archer sailed round and described the land we now know as Cape Cod, and
they named Martha’s Vineyard for one of Gosnold’s daughters.

The Jamestown settlement was to a significant degree a
business venture, but it was supported by the King in part as a way to keep the
Catholic Spanish from moving north from their settlements in Florida.There is little doubt that Robert Hunt – the
Anglican clergyman who arrived with the first settlers – was charged with
maintaining the Protestant purity of the colony.How seriously he took that duty is lost to
time. Little is known of the relationship between Hunt and Archer.

Even though the Church of England was the faith of the land, a significant number of people still felt allegiance to the Catholic pope. So it makes sense that some of the Jamestown settlers may have held such views. Over the past 20 years quite a few Catholic religious
objects have been unearthed in and around Jamestown.Until now they were mostly dismissed as trade
objects, or objects without much significance. This most recent discovery casts
them all in a new light.Perhaps
religious diversity came to Virginia earlier than we realized.

Maryland was settled a few decades later as a Catholic colony, but Catholicism is not really a part of the early Jamestown record. This finding may well change that - it will be interesting to see what Catholic historians have to say. Archer may become the earliest known Catholic burial in British America.

It’s interesting to ponder how that reliquary came to be
atop the casket.If it was placed there
during the internment, was his Catholicism acknowledged?Or was there a Protestant purpose ascribed
to the object?Some suggest that it was
buried with him later, but the settlement was very small and rather densely
populated. The idea that someone could secretly excavate a grave in the chancel
of the church to place the reliquary later strikes me as unlikely.

My interest in this topic stems from family history.One of my ancestors – Rowland Jones – was an
Anglican priest who came to Virginia 60-some years after these men to serve in Bruton
Parish, in what is now Williamsburg. He's actually buried in the chancel of the original church there. For
some time I have questioned the strictness of his Anglican views. His uncle and sister
preceded him to Virginia, and they both died Quaker. Did some of that thinking rub off on him? There are quite a few clergymen in my family
tree.While I don’t doubt their
adherence to finding a good path, I do question their adherence to established
religions.In my experience, we’re a
bunch of nonconformists and free thinkers.

In the records I have seen, religious dissidents like my ancestors came to America to escape persecution in England, and they promptly vanished into the interior of the new land. The Quaker settlements, for example, were some distance from the "official colony." Or at least that's how I've interpreted the old writings. Maybe there was much more mixing, and Catholics, Quakers, and Anglicans lived together much as they do is present-day Virginia.

I've seen evidence of that in the historical records of Williamsburg in studying my own ancestors, but I did not know what to make of it. Today we'd say "Who cares what faith the guy who pumps my gas follows?" Scholars say religion was a much bigger deal back then, but perhaps its importance was overstated, at least for the common person, or among people who were struggling mightily just to survive.

There is very little written about Catholics or Quakers in
the history of Jamestown, but these new discoveries certain give pause for
thought.

John Elder Robison is the neurodiversity scholar in residence at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. The opinions expressed here are his own.

Northeast Center for Youth and Families – the nonprofit who runs the
school – is looking for an automotive teacher to teach, supervise, and instruct
students in accordance with their individual education plans.The automotive teacher will be directly
responsible for assigned students and will assist and participate as requested
in the development of student IEPs and ITPs . Must be able to provide
appropriate individuals with data and documentation such as progress notes and
other reports.

Requirements include an appropriate Massachusetts Vocational Teacher
Certificate, experience in automotive repair, and a valid 7D license to drive
students in a school van. Must also be willing and able to become CPI crisis
de-escalation certified. Clean CORI and driving checks are also required.Please send your cover letter and resume to:

The successful applicant will divide their time between the
automotive program located in the Robison Service Auto Complex at 347 Page
Boulevard in Springfield and the Tri County high school campus at 203 East
Street in Easthampton. This school-industry collaboration represents a unique
teaching opportunity.It is not a
traditional vocation program.Rather,
we’re teaching life skills in the context of this automotive business, and we
believe this will help any high school student who is wrestling with the
challenges of career/college transition.

As an autistic adult who was unable to finish high school this
program is particularly important to me. Lots of people talk about equal
opportunity and affirmative action, but we need to do more than talk – we need
to live it. We have a societal duty to help those of us who are different
succeed and thrive, and this program is one small step toward that goal.

Monday, May 4, 2015

While a fireplace or woodstove can be peaceful, an out of
control fire in the home is one of the most frightening things anyone can
imagine.I had a candle set the wall
screen on fire in my bedroom 35 years ago, and almost got burnt up. That left
me with a lifelong concern and vigilance about the risk of fire.With the arrival of spring, I thought I’d you
some constructive advice on how to protect yourself and your home from fire.

You do not want this to be you

Most articles about fire protection focus on keeping hazards
out of the home – don’t smoke in bed, don’t smoke when you are drunk, make sure
candles are in safe enclosures, etc.That’s all good advice and I won’t repeat it further here.Instead I’m going to focus on what happens
when a fire has started, for whatever the reason.

Your first concern is obviously getting your family and pets
to a safe location. Your next concern is protecting your property, while also
staying safe yourself.That presents a
catch-22.For you to be completely safe
you need to be 100 feet back from the house, from which remove all you can do
is watch your home burn as you wait for the fire trucks.

Professional fire fighters say you should get out, stay out, and let the professionals do their job. That's surely the best way to save lives. But for many of us, the property that is at risk in a fire is valuable. And if the fire department is far away, we must either act to protect our interests, or watch what we have burn.

If you go in and fight the fire, you place yourself at risk,
but if you do it quickly, and do it smartly, your risk is minimized and your
chances of extinguishing the fire are actually far greater than the odds of the
fire department doing it for you.When I
say that I’m not disrespecting the fire department, I am just pointing out that
fires grow exponentially in their first minutes and a kitchen fire may 100
times more difficult to put out five minutes after it started.After 15 minutes it probably will not be
extinguishable without the total loss of the home.

Yet that is the best response time we can home for from our
public servants.They have to answer the
call, load and start the truck, and then drive several miles to reach you.Once there, the hoses have to be unloaded and
deployed, and hydrant hookups made.Even
the fastest firemen need time to do those things.In most cities the fire department will not
be spraying water on your house for at least 10 minutes after your phone call.In the country, that number may triple.If you care about protecting your property,
even five minutes is probably too long.You need to act seconds after discovery, and act decisively.

You must also act fast because a fire in the house will fill it with smoke, and you can become incapacitated or disoriented. If the house is already full of smoke, all you can do is get out. Most people who die in fires are killed by smoke and gases. If the house fills up, get out.

How do you fight fire and win?You
use a combination of early detection then tools, extinguishers, and water.Sounds simple, but the sad truth is that most
home owners have near-zero ability to suppress a fire in the home, and many
can’t even detect fire until far too late.

You must also act fast because a fire in the house will fill it with smoke, and you can become incapacitated or disoriented.

Small extinguishers like this can be kept in key spots round the house.

The biggest risk in most homes is kitchen fires.In our house, we keep small kitchen
extinguishers (see photo) on both sides of the stove.If you get a flash fire, those extinguishers
and a lid for the burning pot will bring most fires under control very fast.If that does not appear to be enough – for
example, if burning oil were to spread onto the floor – I keep a 6 liter 20pound liquid filled restaurant extinguisher hanging 5 steps away in the garage
entry.An extinguisher of that size –
meant for use in commercial kitchens with 80-200lb deep fat fryers - should
suppress any normal residential kitchen fire if caught before the structure
starts to burn.

A 6 liter liquid filled kitchen fire extinguisher

The key – and I cannot stress this enough – is acting
fast.If you are in the kitchen, and a
fire starts, yell out the alarm and grab the extinguishers, aim and fire.Do not hesitate, because once flames reach up
into the ceiling or back into the walls your house may be doomed.

A wise person will have extinguishers close at hand in all
places where they may be in time of need.In our house that means we have them in the kitchen, the bedrooms, and
the garage entryways.We have
flashlights in all those places too, in case we have to fight a fire when the
power is out.

Headlamp, flashlight, work light. Keep them close at hand, in bedroom, kitchen, garage

We keep small extinguishers in the house, and bigger units
in the garage.The logic is simple – the
little units are inoffensive and easy to handle.And you don’t need much in the fire’s first
seconds.If they are not enough, the big
boys are just inside the garage.Out
there I keep several 20lb units with the knowledge that one may not be enough,
and there will be no second chances if they are needed.

Which would you rather risk – $150 for extinguishers or
$300,000 for a new home?

Extinguishers are rated by capacity and types of fires.Kitchen units are Type K, and they are meant
to suppress grease fires on hot commercial kitchen appliances.Some would say that’s overkill in the home
but in my opinion, when putting out fires, there is no such thing.

General purpose extinguishers are usually filled with dry
chemical, and rated for A, B, and C fire.A type A fire is wood, paper, or trash.Or the house itself.Type A is
best suppressed with water once it gets going.

Type B and C are flammable liquid fires and electrical
fires, respectively.A gasoline or
grease fire is a type B fire.A good
10lb dry chemical extinguisher is rated 4A, 60BC.That means is can put out a trash fire of 4
square feet, or a 60 square foot pool of burning gasoline.Most people are surprised to read that it’s
harder to put out a trash fire than a gas fire, but it’s often true.

If you have a risk of liquid fires and high value property –
like burning gasoline in a collector car – consider keeping a 20lb CO2extinguisher on hand.Those units are effective
against gas fires and they cool the surfaces to prevent re-flash.Best of all, they leave no residue.Every collector car garage should have at
least one such unit.

If you are really serious about this, and you live in the country, you may also want to look at fire suppression grenades. These devices are thrown into a burning room, where they discharge a mist that cools the room and interrupts the chemical reactions necessary to sustain fire. They can be astonishingly effective, as this video shows. One big benefit of the grenade is that you can safely throw it into a smoke filled room that you could not otherwise enter, and there's good chance it will knock down or put out the fire all by itself.

Do not look for extinguishers like these at chain stores or
the mall.Look at industrial supplies
places like Grainger, or local fire equipment suppliers - businesses that serve
gas stations and restaurants.Get the
real stuff because your life will depend on it, if it’s ever needed.If there is doubt about size get the biggest
thing you can easily maneuver. There is no such thing as a fire extinguisher
that was too big, unless it’s so big you can’t get it where you need it.

The extinguishers I’ve described will suppress most fires in
a house, until the structure starts burning.An example would be if a candle tips over on a sofa, and you do not
notice till the sofa is engulfed in flame.At that point you have one chance – suppress with water spray,
fast.You can knock down a pretty big
furniture fire fast hitting it with heavy water mist at the base.

With that in mind, I keep 200 feet of hose coiled on a big
hook under the deck, connected and ready to turn on.That is enough hose to reach our backyard
fireplace (150 feet across the yard) and also to reach most anywhere within the
house.There is a backup hose with
another 200 feet of hose on the side of the house.Either one should be sufficient to put out a
burning sofa and many other interior fires that have not yet grown out of
control. Fire departments use much larger hoses to suppress fires fast, but once again timing is of the essence. A single hose will extinguish a blasé at its inception while two pump trucks and six men on hoses will struggle to contain it, once it gets going.

If you are building a home you can take other steps like
raising the ceilings (ours are all 10-15 feet) and using fire resistant
sheetrock.You can also install
sprinkler fire suppression.None of
those things are available at reasonable cost to people with existing homes.

What about the roof catching fire, as with lightning or a
chimney fire?I keep ladders under the
deck, and they would be the only way to suppress a fire from a lightning strike
at the outset.Waiting 10 minutes for a
fire truck in that circumstance generally means the loss of the house.

The next issue is detection, and that is vital. If you don't see a fire start, you have to rely on detectors. We have a fairly large house, and I had all rooms and halls wired with
central station smoke detectors.Central
station means the system calls a dispatch center as well as ringing a bell in
the house.I have monitors in the
bedroom and at the entrances that will announce which zone is in alarm.If you don’t have a system like this the next
best thing is standalone smoke detectors, which need to be in all rooms to be
useful.

The fire code does not call for detectors in every space,
but that is obviously the one and only way to get fast warning.Remember to put detectors around the furnace
and in the attic.

The tips described above should be “good enough” to protect
you if you are home and awake.What if
you are asleep?First of all, sleep with
the bedroom doors closed and be sure there are smoke detectors that work in the
hall.That way, you get an alarm while
your bedroom is still full of clear air (unless the fire starts in your
bedroom.)Make sure there is a means of
getting out of the house from each bedroom.In our house we have large windows in 4 of the bedrooms and a door to
the deck in the master.So exit is easy
and safe.If your bedrooms are on an
upper floor you should have some means of exiting that will really work. The
fire safety ladders that many people buy don’t generally work.Try climbing one some time and you will see
why – unless the ladder had standoffs and weight at the bottom, you won’t be
able to put your feet in.In a panic,
you will likely fall.The solution is to
get a high grade rope ladder, or a quickly deployable aluminum unit. You also
need to be sure you can actually exit via the windows.

The next thing to consider is night, which is when many
fires happen.With that in mind, I
strongly suggest you have portable lights in every bedroom.I recommend Streamlight Stinger C4
rechargeable.Many police departments
use these.They are very bright, water
and shock proof, and when charged they will run for hours.For most homeowners a good flashlight is a
far smarter investment that a gun, and one that is sure to be useful.I also have larger battery lights that I can
use if the power fails (a time of heightened risk)

If you are going in to fight a fire a headlamp is a great
thing to have too. Petzl is a good brand with NAO being their most powerful unit as of this writing (May 2015) Black Diamond is another good brand, and Streamlight also makes commercial headlamps.

The second thought relates to clothing. I’m going to assume you do not have specialist
fireproof clothes quick at hand. If you
have to exit a burning home you are safer running out naked rather than running
through flames in synthetic nightwear. The synthetics will stick to you if they
burn, with really nasty result.If you
wear clothes, wear cotton, which you can wet for safety.If you wear gloves, use leather, not
synthetics for the same reason.Wear leather
boots, not synthetic too.

If you decide to follow those suggestions, do one more
thing:buy extinguishers for all your
cars too.Everything I suggested will
cost under $1,000 which is a comparatively trivial cost for such protection.

All my life, I have looked to my own resources for defense
and protection.So far, it’s
worked.It can work for you too.Fire departments are great for big fires, and
slow moving fires.But they are of
little help if you want to avoid widespread ruin after a home fire starts.Protect yourself effectively, and you won’t
even need to call them.

Hunter Thompson said it well.“There is one rule in this house.Never, ever, call 911.”Look after yourself.

Saturday, April 4, 2015

The James River shoreline, near Williamsburg, VA (c) John Elder Robison

Autism is a neurological difference that’s associated with
some gifts and a great many disabilities.For a person to be diagnosed on the autism spectrum, they must have
significant impairments as a result of autism.We may have gifts too, but disability remains the basis for
diagnosis.Some autistic people are
rendered non-speaking by their condition, and I can’t imagine who would
celebrate that.Others live with
significant medical compilations like epilepsy.I’ve yet to meet anyone who celebrates that either.

At the same time, there is a growing body of evidence that
autistic brain differences have facilitated some of mankind’s great
accomplishments in music, engineering, science, theology and the arts.The achievements are certainly worthy of
admiration, but are the autism differences that facilitated them cause for
celebration?I guess that’s a matter of
opinion.

I think neurological diversity is something to celebrate
because different people do different things.Ten typical people struggled to push a cart with skids, until an
autistic guy showed them a wheel.Without
difference, our species would have come to an end long ago.It’s diversity that gives us the species
ability to cope with an ever-shifting world.

They say Newton was autistic, and his calculus is part of
the foundation of the modern technical world.Do we celebrate the tool, or the different mind it came from?In today’s world the creator of Pokémon says
he’s on the spectrum.Do we celebrate
that, or his accomplishment?All around
you, there are autistic people with exceptional skills and talents.At the same time, there are autistic people
crippled or limited by their autism.It’s
hard to reconcile the dichotomy of that.

I think autistic people – as a group - are worthy of
celebration.In American society we set
aside periods for celebration of all sorts of people – women, African
Americans, cancer survivors, and more.Autistics are just as deserving of celebration as any other group, and
in some ways more so because of our persistence in the face of marginalization
and mistreatment. And because we’ve brought society many cool things.

But I personally don’t see this month as a time of
celebration.I see it as a time when
autism is in the news, and in the public mind, and as a result, we build
awareness and acceptance in the general public.

We hope a more aware public will treat us better, and
provide more assistance and accommodation.A more aware public might understand why we behave differently and respond
more appropriately in many situations.Readers of my books have told me that, and I’ve heard the same said to
other autistic authors.

That’s a good thing.The only downside to that kind of awareness is when autism is depicted
in an unrealistic way – as devoid of disability – because that makes an
ignorant public think we don’t need supports and services, when in fact we do. That’s
a sad truth about our society.The more
eloquently a person is able to articulate their needs, the less support they
are deemed to need.We must always be conscious
of that, when we talk about autism.

What about autism acceptance?That’s the thing many autistic self-advocates
focus on this month.If you believe
autism has been part of humanity forever then acceptance is the only point of
view that makes sense.If you believe in
the value of human diversity, autism is as much a part of that as red hair. You
may like parts of it, and you may hate parts of it, but it’s here to stay and you
best accept that.

Always remember that accepting autistic people does not
equal accepting autistic suffering or disability.Many fine people devote their lives to
relieving suffering in our population, whether through addressing medical
issues like intestinal distress or by helping us make friends or find
jobs.That work is an admirable
accompaniment to acceptance.

To do anything but accept, embrace, and support autistic
people is simply mean.It’s wrong. We
did not ask to be how we are.You may
see us as different, but from our perspective, it’s the typical population
who’s different. Every human has that right to acceptance, and we are no
exception.We bring great gifts to
humanity by being here, and there’s a cost to have us.Just as there’s a cost for every other human
on the planet.

So what would I ask for this month? Volunteering at a local
autism program can truly change lives.Get involved in research as a volunteer or advisor. Stand up for
autistic people in government.Studies
have shown that 100 dedicated people at the state house can absolutely move the
positions of legislators.Make friends
with autistic people, and cultivate the relationships you already have.There are a million things you can do that
truly make a difference.

Make life better for autistic people.Call that celebration, call it advocacy, but
do something real.That’s my best wish
and advice for this April, whatever you want to call it.